Mississippi county to put up marker about 1935 lynching

OXFORD, Miss. — A Mississippi county is preparing to put up a historical marker to honor the last black person killed by lynching there.

The Oxford Eagle reports Elwood Higginbottom was lynched in Lafayette County on Sept. 17, 1935, after he killed a white man in self-defense. Higginbottom’s wife and three children fled Oxford, first going to Tupelo and ultimately settling in Memphis, Tennessee.

His relatives returned to the site where the lynching is believed to have happened to collect a jar of soil for the Equal Justice Initiative’s National Memorial for Peace and Justice. The memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, opened in April and remembers lynching victims across the United States.

The Oxford Board of Aldermen this month approved the placement of the historical marker, which will take place Oct. 27.